Monday, March 30, 2015

Hola Hola!!!!

Wow, another week come and gone here in beautiful Peru! I can`t believe how fast the time is flying here! I hit my two month mark on Friday and can`t even believe it!

(2 month mark! My comp made me cute little signs :)

This week was a little crazy due to a huge Huayco, mudslide, that happened in an area called

Chosika in our mission. It was a devastating thing for the town and all the missionaries were evacuated. One of my friends from the CCM was in the area and saw the whole thing happen. They were all a little in shock but all the missionaries were safe. They told us of so many little miracles! My friend, Elder Jessen, and his comp were walking down the street on p-day and decided randomly to cross over to another street. They said they felt the ground rumble and then saw the mudslide come raging down the street they had just been on. They ran through about waist deep water to get away but made it safely to higher ground. My friend told me he is sure they would have gotten caught by the mudslide for sure if they had stayed on the street because it came so fast. But the Lord protects his missionaries and they were safe and able to help others get to safety as well. A bunch of the sisters came and stayed in our apartment because it is super close to the mission offices and stuff and has extra beds so they showed us all their pics and it`s crazy all the damage it caused. So we had another sister with us for 2 days, Hermana De Castillo from Canada and that was really fun! Then they all got reassigned to new areas.

 (These pictures were taken from the internet)

(A pic of my comp and I with our comp Hermana de Castillo who was in Chosica so she was our comp for 2 days before she got moved to a new area. She was in Kelsey Lee`s ward in Canada, how crazy is that!!!!)

The work has been progressing here, we`ve found some more people to teach and have some investigators who we have a lot of hope for. We worked hard on listening to the spirit and teaching by the spirit. Asking lots of questions and just listening to the people we are teaching is so important and we were able to find out the needs of so many people and help show them how the gospel really can bless their lives. It was beautiful to watch the spirit help us ask the right questions, say the right things, and help them open their hearts in a way we wouldn`t have been able to otherwise.

(My companion and I in front of our apartment)

Then we got to watch women`s conference on Saturday! It was so good and I actually understood a lot of it in Spanish which was a huge blessing! It was all about families and how important they are. Which of course made me cry because I am so far away from my family and won`t see them for another 16 months, but it made me so grateful to know that my family is eternal and gave me a greater desire to share the gospel with families here in Peru so they can have that same reassurance and hope that they can be with their family forever after this life. So beautiful.

I`m so excited for General Conference this week too! It`s going to be amazing and I’m excited to get to hear from our Prophet and the leaders of our church. What a huge blessing to get to hear the Lord`s voice and will for us through his servants. I`ve been amazed at the love the people here have for the prophet. We`ve been trying to get a lot of people excited about conference and they just can`t wait to hear what will be said. Hearing them talk about how much the prophet means to them and their desire to follow him is inspiring :)

And Easter!!! SO many good things coming up this week! Here they celebrate the whole week at semana santa and I hear it`s a little crazy so I’m excited to see what they do! I`m so excited to get to share my knowledge that I know Christ lives and loves us all. If you haven`t watched the video the church put out for Easter do it! It`s called gracias a que el vive in Spanish....something like “Because He Lives” in English I think. It`s amazing! I know he lives. I know he loves me. I know because he lives I can too and I have his help every day of my life. I can`t wait to share this message this week! I love being a missionary!!!! :) 

Have a great week and remember how much I love you all and how much the Lord loves you! Remember Christ this week in everything you do and what you can do because He lives. :)

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Cox

(My comps from the CCM I got to see my first p-day because we had a special p-day for all the Hermanas in the mission.)

 (View from my back window of my apartment)

 (View from my front window of my apartment)

 (View of the inside of my apartment)

 (Other Hermanas in my zone)